Assessment of Acute Complications and Quality of Life in Patients with Ischemic Stroke at Shar Teaching Hospital, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the acute complications and QOL of patients with ischemic stroke at a hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to recruit 131 patients with ischemic stroke at the Shar Hospital in Sulaimaniyah City, Iraq. The non-probability purposive sampling technique was performed at the Neurology Unit. Information was obtained through direct interviews. The questionnaire consists of patients’ characteristics, acute complications, and QOL. Results: Most patients were aged 60-69 years old (67.25%), males (53.4%), married (90.8%), had no formal education (66.4%), housewives (36.6%), from urban areas (79.4%), had no previous transient ischemic attack (TIA) (76.3%), had two comorbidities (35.1%), had a chest infection (61.8%), UTI (62.6%), urinary retention (59.5%), shoulder pain (63.4%), fever (67.2%), had 7-8 complications (25.2%), had poor QoL for energy dimension (61.8%), family role (57.3%), language (58%), mobility (58.8%), mood (60.3%), self-care (70.2%), vision (73.3%). However, most patients had good QoL for personality (52.7%), social role (64.9%), thinking (60.3%), upper extremity function (50.4%), and work/productivity (55%). Additionally, most patients (66.4%) had poor overall QoL, and only 33.6% had good overall QoL. A significant association (p≤0.05) was found between participants’ QoL and the complication numbers, age, residency, TIA and attack numbers. Conclusions: Most ischemic stroke patients had poor overall QoL and poor QoL with vision, self-care, energy, and mood.